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SARATOGA WATERS, 



OR THE 



INVALID AT SARATOGA 



BY M. Ii. NORTH, M.D. 



A RESIDENT PHYSICIAN 



SECOND EDITION. 

WITH THE ANALYSES OF VARIOUS MINERAL SPRINGS*- 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY SAXTON & MILES,, 
205 Broadway. 

1843. 



\ J 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 3843, by 

M. L. NORTH, 
in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Connecticut 



S. W. BENEDICT & CO., PRINT., 

128 Fulton Street. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Preliminary Observations, . . . .5 

CHAPTER II. 
Professional advice before leaving home, . . 9 

CHAPTER III. 

History and Analysis of several of the Springs of 

Saratoga, 11 

CHAPTER IV. 

The medicinal character of the Saratoga Waters, 24 

CHAPTER V. 
Manner of taking the Waters, . . . .31 

CHAPTER VI. 
The use of the Saratoga Waters as an alterative, 40 

CHAPTER VII. 

External use of the Waters. Baths, . . .50 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Miscellaneous remarks on Saratoga as a resort for 

Invalids, 60 

Additional Analyses, , . . * • 70 



THE 



INVALID AT SARATOGA. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

To the invalid, whom infirmities have de- 
pressed, whom pains have harassed, and 
whose hopes of regaining health have hitherto 
proved delusive, the inquiry — " Shall I visit 
Saratoga ?" is one of no ordinary moment. 
Home must be abandoned — toil and exposure 
encountered — the supervision of domestic 
concerns and of business suspended — expense 
incurred — strange faces and scenes met — new 
lodgings, new accommodations, new recipro- 
cities established ; and, often, what is most 
painful of all, a beloved and trusted family 
physician exchanged for a stranger. 

The healthy, the fashionable and the plea- 



O THE INVALID 

sure-seeking cannot appreciate at all the sa« 
crifices and painful efforts that are often 
made by those whom they meet at the 
Springs. Yet what is toil, what estrange- 
ment from home, what a few days of pain or 
trouble among strangers, what the loss of 
money, what a few weeks of pilgrimage 
even ; if death can be averted, if pains can 
be chased away, strength, appetite and spi- 
rits restored, and all the delightful sensations 
of health revisit the sufferer ? 

That such have been the happy results of 
a resort to the Saratoga Fountains, many 
thousands can testify. Indeed they do testify 
and have testified it: and it is through their 
noiseless testimony, w 7 hich is spreading from 
city to city and from state to state, that we 
see the multitudes of pilgrims to this place 
so rapidly increasing. Yet this is not the 
only report that emanates from this valley. 
Such are the power and efficacy of these wa- 
ters and their influence over the animal 
economy, that many who use them improper- 
ly return to their friends with increased in- 
firmities and cutting disappointment. But 
though this is a notorious and painful fact, it 



AT SARATOGA, 7 

is not, to the observing physician, anything 
out of the common course of events. Mor- 
phine, quinine, calomel, Epsom salts and 
many other medicinal agents whose effects 
are most clearly beneficial, are all liable to 
produce disastrous effects when misapplied. 

To the healthy and well balanced frame, 
a tumbler of the. sparkling and delicious bev- 
erage, although it contains over 37 grains of 
various saline matters, besides the gases, can 
do little mischief. And if ten or twelve tum- 
blers are taken, the conservative powers of 
such a system will usually manage to evade 
the evil. But, when the patient comes labor- 
ing under disease, with the healthy action 
suspended and the economy in a generally 
deranged condition, the swallowing of ten or 
fifteen tumblers of this potent medicine every 
morning, is by no means a matter of trifling 
or impunity. How many, after various re- 
petitions of these absurd and ill-judged pota- 
tions, go home in disgust and despair, with 
every inflammatory tendency aggravated, and 
every irritation increased by the very remedy 
which has restored health to their neighbors 
and friends. 



% THE INVALID 

This, I say again, is no enigma. But 
how shall this great evil be remedied ? How 
shall this abuse be suppressed ? How shall 
the valetudinarian—the diseased wanderer— 
be persuaded not to trifle with his life and 
health by an unwarranted and misdirected 
application of these waters? In these inqui- 
ries every physician and every chronic pa- 
tient in the country are interested. So is 
every member of this community. Every 
friend of humanity residing among these 
Fountains of Health, cannot but feel a deep 
and laudable ambition that these waters 
which are healing so many, and with effects 
so marked as to leave not a shadow of am- 
biguity, should never prove injurious. 

But none, except the patients and their 
friends, can feel so deep and sensible an inte- 
rest in the proper application of these reme- 
dies, both internally and externally, as the 
physicians who reside permanently at the 
fountains and whose business it is to direct 
inquirers to a safe and proper course. It is 
this which has led the writer to the publica- 
tion of this little Manual. Having come, 
himself, to this place for the establishment of 



AT SA R AT0G A . 9 

his own broken health, and having been un- 
expectedly induced to take up his residence 
here, he must be excused for saying, that he 
feels an irrepressible desire to contribute in 
spreading as widely as possible, what he con- 
ceives to be correct information respecting 
the nature and proper use of the mineral re- 
medies of Saratoga. 



CHAPTER II. 

PROFESSIONAL ADVICE BEFORE LEAVING HOME. 

The writer has often thought that if invalids, 
when coming here, would have a thorough 
conference with their regular physician pre- 
viously to leaving home, they might receive 
such directions as would be not only useful 
but a matter of economy. Many come here 
without any professional advice or direction 
or preparation. Having worn out their phy- 
sicians, or been the round of the nostrums, 
they resolve to spend hoo or three w r eeks 
drinking and bathing in the pools of Sarato- 



10 THE INVALID 

ga ! A visit to the Springs is somehow to 
cure them. 

Precisely as if they should say in an ordi- 
nary attack of sickness, " I will go to the 
druggist's and procure some medicine. 5 ' 
" Ah ! but what medicine ?" " No matter : 
medicine is medicine." " But how do you 
know that your present disorder will be be- 
nefited by the medicine you select V\ " No 
matter : I am sick, and there must be some- 
thing on the shelves of the apothecary, to 
whom everybody resorts, that will cure me." 

In the same manner valetudinarians often 
visit mineral springs. Without knowing at 
all whether their diseases be inflammatory or 
the reverse — whether they are plethoric or 
reduced — whether they need the water as an 
alterative, diuretic, cathartic or tonic — whe- 
ther they need the warm, cold or shower 
bath, or neither : — -in short, in utter igno- 
rance of the variety of ways the remedy can 
be made to bear on various disorders in dif- 
ferent constitutions and temperaments, they 
mostly seem to come with two simple pur- 
poses — to deluge the stomach with as much 
water as they can swallow, and resort fre- 



A T S- ARATO'&A. 11 

quently to the baths. In this way the plans 
of the patient are often thwarted, his hopes 
blasted, and he departs wondering that such 
crowds should resort to a place where he has 
received nothing but trouble and disappoint- 
ment. 



CHAPTER III. 

HISTORY AND ANALYSIS OF SEVERAL OF THE SPRINGS 
OF SARATOGA. 

CONGRESS SPRING. 

Amidst all the capricious elevations and 
depressions which watering-places and sum- 
mer retreats from time immemorial are known 
to have shared, the Congress Spring of Sara- 
toga has stood unshaken. Its celebrity has 
arisen and been established by its own intrinsic 
merits. By means of bottling, its properties 
are known to men in all the four quarters of 
the globe. This process has, probably, 
greatly accelerated the spread of its reputa- 
tion in our own country. The achievements 



12 THE INVALID 

of steam are doing still more, by bringing 
from our cities and villages, representatives 
who, on returning home, make their own 
reports to their friends and neighbors of the 
effects of these waters. The sum total of 
these reports, could we obtain it, would be 
the exact measure of public estimation of this 
and the other springs of this place. In the 
absence of this criterion, we have a proof of 
the general approbation of these springs by the 
steady increase of the village, founded solely 
'on the demand of visitors for accommodation. 
The curbing to the Congress Spring had 
become so defective, from its having been 
about forty years in the same position, that it 
formed an imperfect barrier to the fresh wa- 
ter which surrounded the fountain. In this 
way the original concentrated mineral water 
became somewhat diluted^ and Dr. Clark, the 
owner, in the spring of 1842, very cautiously, 
but, as it proved, very wisely, caused it to be 
thoroughly overhauled, cleansed, and reno- 
vated, by putting down a new, substantial 
curb, leading to the exact point of escape 
from the rock, and surrounding the curb by 
large quantities of clay, rendered very com- 



At SARATOGA. 13 

pact by artificial means. A great improve- 
ment was immediately perceptible in the in- 
creased amount of gas, in its marked saline 
taste, and its augmented cathartic power. 
The older citizens recognized the Congress 
Spring of years gone by, and the event w T as 
hailed with congratulations by the inhabit- 
ants in general. The improvement was 
equally acknowledged by the visitants in the 
course of the summer, as was shown by the 
crowds which resorted to the favorite drink- 
ing-place in the morning. The taste has ap- 
peared to show an increasing strength, during 
the year, and I have often, when resorting ta 
it, observed the gas freely bubbling from its 
surface. 

The popular decision respecting the me- 
dicinal effects of the spring is abundantly 
confirmed by the repeated analyses which 
have since been made by that eminent chemist. 
Dr. J. R. Chilton, of New York. An analy- 
sis made soon after the reconstruction of the 
spring, compared with one done by him in 
1840, both of which I would insert did not 
my limits forbid, showed an increase of solid 
matter from 298 grs. to 410. 
2 



14 THE INVALID 

The following is the result of an analysis 
which I have just procured from him, dated 
May 1, 1843 : 

One gallon, or 231 cubic inches, contains: 



Chloride of Sodium, 




363.829 


Carbonate of Soda, 




7.200 


Carbonate of Lime, 




86.143 


Carbonate of Magnesia, 


78.621 


Carbonate of Iron, 




.841 


Sulphate of Soda, 




.651 


Iodide of Sodium and Bromide of 


Potassium, 




5.920 


Silica, 




.472 


Alumina, 


grs.- 


.321 




543.998 


Carbonic acid, 


284.65 




Atmospheric air, 


5.41 




Cubic inches, 


290.06 





THE PUTNAM SPRING. 
Analysis by J. R. Chilton, May> 1840. 

One gallon, or 231 cubic inches, contains ; 
Chloride of Sodium, grs. 214.00 

Sulphate of Soda, 1.68 



AT SARATOGA. 




Carbonate of Soda, 


14.32 


Carbonate of Magnesia, 


51.60 


Carbonate of Lime, 


68.80 


Iodide of Sodium, and a trace of 




Bromide of Potassium, 


2.00 


Carbonate of Iron, 


7.00 


Sulphate of Lime, 


.21 


Silica, 


.84 


Alumen, 


.56 



15 



grs. 361.01 
Carbonic Acid, inches, 326.4 
Atmospheric Air, 6.4 



332.8 
A glance at the above analysis shows the 
Putnam Fountain to be highly impregnated 
with gaseous and saline materials, and to 
contain an amount of iron which places it at 
the head of our springs, as compared with 
the analysis formerly made by Dr. Steel and 
those latterly by Chilton, in its chalybeate 
and tonic powers. This spring, which is 
owned wholly by Mr. Lewis Putnam, has 
been discovered and curbed within a few 
years, and is already a favorite wiih many 
visitants. When bottled, it deposits an iron- 



16 THE INVALID 

colored sediment, which is very light, and 
about the nature of which chemists are by no 
means agreed. Notwithstanding this blemish, 
Mr. Putnam is receiving frequent orders from 
agents and individuals abroad ; and the wa- 
ter bids fair to sustain and increase its reputa- 
tion amidst the powerful competition it meets 
in this valley of fountains. 



IODINE SPRING. 

This fountain, which is in the northeast 
part of the village, was explored and curbed 
by a few spirited individuals in the autumn 
of 1839, and was first brought into public 
notice in the following summer. It is now 
in the hands of Mr. John Morris and Judge 
Walton of this village. It has been analyzed 
by Prof. Emmons of Albany, and Dr. Chilton 
of New York. Their results. are very simi- 
lar. The following was made by Prof. Em- 
mons: 

One gallon, or 231 cubic inches, contains, 
Muriate of Soda, grs. 187.0 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 75-0 

Carbonate of Lime, 26.0 



AT SARATOGA, 17 

Carbonate of Soda, 2.0 

Carbonate of Iron, 1.0 

Hydriodate of Soda, 3.5 

grs. 294.5 
Carbonic acid gas, 326 
Air, 4 



Cubic inches, 330 

Albany , February 18th, 1839. 
This spring has many admirers. It bottles 
well, and is largely ordered. It is very acidu- 
lous, light and easy to the stomach. It is pe- 
culiar for the small quantity of iron it con- 
tains ; and before the renovation of the Con- 
gress Spring in 1842, and its subsequent 
analysis, it stood alone in its feeble impregna- 
tion with iron and consequently in its adapt- 
edness to inflammatory complaints. 



PAVILION SPRING. 

This fountain, which is near the centre of 
the village, a few rods southeast from the 
Pavilion Hotel, was excavated, curbed and 
brought to its present admirable condition 

during the autumn of 1839 and the spring 

2* 



18 THE INVALID 

of 1840, by Mr. D. McLaren of this 
village, at an expense of several thou- 
sand dollars. This great expense was una- 
voidable through the difficulty of sinking, a 
large, square enclosure formed of stout logs, 
to a depth of nearly forty feet in a soft mo- 
rass, combined with the vast amount of water 
to be thrown out by relays of men at the 
pumps night and day, and the exposure of 
the workmen to suffocation from the abun- 
dance of gas developed from the waters in 
the excavation. At length two stout plank 
curbs, or square tubes, were carefully placed 
in separate parts of the bottom of the cavity, 
and secured in such a manner as to conduct 
the waters nearly forty feet, to an elevation, 
quite above the natural surface of the land, 
where they are both discharging their rich 
and sparkling streams of medicated waters. 
Both these perpendicular rivulets have been 
analyzed : but the western has engrossed 
nearly all the public favor, and is called the 
Pavilion Fountain. The gas is so abundant 
in this tube, that myriads of small globules 
are often thrown nearly a foot from the sur- 
face j and, if watched in a sunny morning 



AT SARATOGA., 19 

when the moon in the zenith is producing its 
attraction on the column of forty feet depth, 
the shower of fine globules, each performing 
its curved circuit upward and downward, de- 
corated with the refraction of the sun's rays, 
will be found to produce one of the most rare 
and beautiful phenomena in nature. I insert 
the analysis made by Dr. Chilton, Aug., 1840.* 
One gallon, or 231 cubic inches, contains: 



Chloride of Sodium, 




187.68 


Carbonate of Soda, 




4.92 


Carbonate of Lime, 




52.84 


Carbonate of Magnesia 


3 


56.92 


Carbonate of Iron, 




3.51 


Sulphate of Soda, 




1.48 


lod. Sod. Brom. Pot., 




2.59 


Alumina, 




.42 


Phosp. Lime, 




.19 


Silica, 




1.16 




311.71 


Carbonic acid, 


359.5 




Air, 


5.3 




Cubic inches, 


364.8 





* I regret that I cannot, without trespassing on a 
copyright, procure an analysis made by Dr. Chilton in 
1842, showing a decided increase in the ingredients. 



20 THE INVALID 

UNION SPRING. 

This name has recently been given to one 
of the ten springs, which are situated about a 
mile from the Iodine Spring, in an easterly 
direction, near the road to Schuylerville. 
This fountain has long been known to be 
highly medicinal and agreeable ; and, under 
the management of Messrs. A. B. & D. Sands 
of New York, it has already been introduced 
into New York and other cities in bottles. 
The following is its analysis made by Dr. J. 
R. Chilton, August 19, 1841 : 

One gallon, or 231 cubic inches, contains, 
Chloride of Sodium, grs. ,243.620 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 84.265 

Carbonate of Lime, 41.600 

Carbonate of Soda, 12.800 

Carbonate of Iron, 5.452 

Iodide of Sodium and a trace of 

Bromide of Potassium, 3.600 

Silica and Alumina, 1.570 



grs. 392.907 
Carbonic acid, 344.16 

Air, 4.62 



Cubic inches, 348.78 



AT SARATOGA. . . 21 

The composition of the remaining springs, 
namely, the High Rock, Flat Rock, Hamil- 
ton, Columbian and Washington, is so simi- 
lar as not to need particular description. In 
one thing they all agree, in being highly 
charged with iron. Hence, although decid- 
edly laxative, they are ranked under the com- 
mon appellation of chalybeate and tonic 
springs ; and are more often taken without 
regard to any aperient effect than the Saline 
Springs, whose analyses have already been 
given. Nevertheless, the High Rock, Flat 
Rock and Hamilton have each their firm ad- 
vocates and friends ; and it is very common 
for individuals to make their annual pilgrim- 
age to this place, to take of one of these 
springs exclusively, and in the common 
methods of morning potations, with a view 
to their cathartic effects. 

The High Rock is an object of lasting in- 
terest and curiosity, and the visitants are few 
who fail to make it a visit and talk over its 
history. It is situated in the upper village, a 
few rods south of the Iodine Spring. It w T as 
the only spring for many years after the 
famous cure of Sir James Johnson, in 1767. 



22 THE INVALID 

i 

The Flat Rock Spring, so called from an 
extensive deposition of calcareous matter 
around the outlet, which was permitted to re- 
main undisturbed till within a few years, is 
located a few rods northwest of the present 
Pavilion Fountains. The Hamilton is be- 
tween Putnam and Congress Springs. The 
Columbian is within a few feet of the Con- 
gress, and the Washington, a little to the 
southwest of Congress Spring, by the Wash- 
ington Bath House. 

There is still another Saline Spring near the 
American Bath House, east of the Pavilion ; 
but there has occurred such difficulty in ex- 
cluding fresh water from its current, that it 
is now used principally for bathing. 

The above list includes all the saline 
springs in this vicinity, except Ellis's Spring, 
which emerges from the ground about two 
miles south of the village, immediately under 
the embankment of the rail-road, and nearly 
west of the flouring-mill. This fountain pos- 
sesses chemical and medicinal qualities, simi- 
lar to those already described. 

The Sulphur Springs within the village, pos- 
sess but feeble sulphureous qualities. Abel's 



AT SARATOGA. 23 

Spring on the southeast border of Saratoga 
lake, has more decided manifestations of sul- 
phur ; and a spring about three miles to the 
westward of this place, still more. This 
spring, from its location, its abundance, its 
contiguity to a fresh water spring and its re- 
tired sylvan scenery, is very certainly des- 
tined some day to attract great attention from 
the visitants of Saratoga for the purposes of 
riding, walking, drinking and bathing. Its 
access should speedily be made more easy, 
and it should have a name. Its powerful 
gush from the bosom of the earth, might 
well entitle it to the denomination of The 
Great Sulphur Spring. Some enterprising 
individual or company may succeed in insu- 
lating and securing a concentrated and effica- 
cious sulphureous water, and thus, not only 
secure their own fortune, but afford a most 
desirable accommodation to the invalids who 
resort to our springs. 



24 THE INVALID 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE MEDICINAL CHARACTER OF THE WATERS OF THE 
SARATOGA SPRINGS.' 

There are two methods of testing the na- 
ture of an agent that is to be introduced into 
the materia medica ; viz. by carefully watch- 
ing and recording the therapeutical effects of 
the article on individuals, and by chemical 
analysis. The latter criterion is probably a 
more fallacious guide than is generally sup- 
posed. How often has the practitioner been 
surprised at the augmented, diminished, or less 
irritating effects of some off-hand combination 
that would be wholly unlooked for by esti- 
mating the separate agency of each article ! 

So of mineral waters. Chemical analysis 
cannot decide the exact medicinal effects of a 
new spring, independently of a faithful obser- 
vation of its operation. For, 

1st. Many medicines, such as oxyde of iron, 
carbonate of iron, pulverized bark, calomel, 
the gum resins, when in pills, capsicum, gin- 
ger, &c, pass through the alimentary passages 
with VBry little absorption. Mineral waters, 



A T SARATOGA. 25 

on the contrary, as may be inferred from the 
experiments of Dr. Beaumont, are introduced 
into the blood by the absorbents of the stom- 
ach, without any previous deposition or diges- 
tion, and thus these mineral agents which, in 
their minute proportions, would be very inert 
in a state of powder, are admitted to the inner 
coat of all the blood-vessels, and to the mi- 
nutest branches of the secretory apparatus. 
How widely different these two modes of 
operation must be, all can readily understand. 

2d. Chemical analysis cannot appreciate 
the qualifying or muuatle Sects of the ingre- 
dients on each other as above stated. 

3d. In the language of Dr. James Johnson 
of London, " Mineral waters contain, in all 
probability, many agents which we cannot 
imitate by artificial combinations. This is 
proved by every day's observation. Thus, 
the saline, aperient mineral waters will pro- 
duce ten times more effect than the identical 
materials artificially dissolved and mixed. The 
same is true with respect to the chalybeate 
springs. A grain of iron in them is more tonic 
than twenty grains exhibited according to the 
pharmacopoeia." " It does not follow, how« 
3 



26 THE INVALID 

ever, that waters contain no active materials 
because chemistry is unable to detect them. 
Powerful agents may be diffused in waters, 
which are incapable of analysis, or which are 
destructible by the process employed for that 
purpose. The only sure test is experience of 
their effect on the human body." 

Under the guidance of both these tests we 
are authorized to say that these waters are, 
1st, laxative or aperient; 2d, diuretic; 3d, 
antacid ; 4th, deobstruent ; 5th, alterative ; 
and 6th, tonic. 

The medical faculty and the public have a 
general understanding of all these qualities 
except the last ; and I defer to the chapter on 
the manner of taking the waters, any farther 
remarks on these qualities with the exception 
above named. 

Before my residence here, I had beer* 
many years prescribing Congress water in 
bottles to my patients as a pleasant aperient. 
Its bracing effects I had never suspected. In 
conversation with a professional brother in 
Hartford, just before my leaving that city, who 
has a wide and respectable practice, and who 
is frequently prescribing Congress water, he 



\ 



AT SARA T G A . 



seemed almost to have forgotten whether there 
was any iron in the article or not. This is, 
doubtless, true of many physicians who are 
constantly directing the use of this beverage. 
But, were these gentlemen stationed here and 
obliged to watch its daily effects, when taken 
liberally from the fountains, on the pulse, color, 
tone and movements of the system ; and to 
witness the unequivocal aggravation of local, 
inflammatory affections when not counteracted 
by appropriate remedies, they would appreciate 
the anxiety felt by the writer that the profes- 
sion, generally, should understand the exact 
nature of the case, and give their patients the 
proper directions and preparation when leav- 
ing their homes for Saratoga. 

If any suppose the physicians of this water- 
ing place have misjudged in this affair, or that 
the writer is unduly anxious that inflammatory 
affections should be kept down while patients 
are in the use of these remedies, let them ex- 
amine the history of the various mineral 
waters of Europe. There is no exception to 
the fact, that whether iron be present or ab- 
sent, an internal use of these remedies is pro- 
ductive of stimulating and tonic effects. The 



28 THE INVALID 

Buxton waters in England, which contain 
only 15 grains of saline matter in a gallon, 
and 6 cubic inches of gaseous products, have 
"been found, from a record of 14,906 patients, 
to be highly stimulating and tonic. The 
bracing effects of the waters have proved a 
constant source of embarrassment to Dr. 
Robertson of the place, and require continual 
counteraction. 

In an extended and careful examination of 
the treatment adopted at the various watering 
places in Europe and our country, I have not 
met with one spring, unless such as is simply 
sulphureous, that does not need a concomi- 
tant reducing treatment in invalids laboring 
under inflammation or plethora. The cardi- 
nal importance of a right understanding of 
this topic, as it goes to obviate almost the 
only evil that can result from the use of our 
w r aters, is my apology for these extended 
remarks. 

Yet, I must not be understood to say that 
all need depletion before they come or while 
here. Far from it. There are many who 
come with soft, slow pulse, pale countenance, 
and freedom from inflammatory tendencies' 



AT SARATOGA. 29 

whona the saline springs exactly suit without 
any previous medication. Crowds of such 
come and go annually rejoicing in their visit 
to these fountains. There are others, too, of 
so cold and torpid a habit that they need 
warming and acrid remedies as auxiliaries to 
the water ; and there are some with such ex- 
quisitely irritable nerves as to require — not 
depletory measures — but anodynes, such as a 
pill every four hours of extract of hyosciamus, 
carbonate of ammonia and camphor. I have 
been pleased to see how visitants of this char- 
acter, whose bowels had been thrown into 
great pain and distension by a few tumblers 
taken in the morning, could be made to bear 
full and effectual doses of the water by the 
addition of such a sedative as the one above 
mentioned. 

Still there is a wide difference between a 
patient who brings a calm circulation, soft 
pulse, pale tongue and lips, and exemption 
from local obstructions, and one who is florid, 
full, hot, with white fur on the tongue, hard, 
wiry pulse, and all those symptoms founded 
on a sanguine temperament, and subacute or 
chronic local inflammation. 
3* 



30 THE INVALID 

The same disease, according to our imper- 
fect nomenclature, needs the two opposite 
modes of treatment. In rheumatism, for ex- 
ample, one patient may have been long afflict- 
ed without any active inflammation. His 
joints are stiff, and he feels the regular aug- 
mentation of his troubles from a cold, north- 
east storm. But, he is thin, pale, feeble, and 
his pulse is uniformly soft and slow. Such 
cases, whether chronic rheumatism, sciatica, 
or lumbago, will find most decided relief from 
drinking and warm bathing. 

But if the disease be accompanied with 
heat, swelling, and pain of joints, aggravated 
by warm applications and motion, a w T hite 
tongue and hard pulse, the most direct and 
positive injury must result from the potations 
and hot bathing, unless the system be brought 
below the grade of inordinate action. 



AT SARATOGA. 31 

CHAPTER V. 

THE INTERNAL USE OF THE SARATOGA WATERS. 

We now proceed to offer some directions 
for the use of visitants, on their arrival at the 
Springs. 

The first inquiry made by the invalid after 
suitable lodgings are procured is, of course, 
" how shall I take the waters?" " When 
begin % 99 " What springs ?" " In what 
quantities and at what hours V 9 These ques- 
tions can be solved at every corner. In the 
language of the late Dr. Steel, " there are 
numerous persons who flock about the 
springs during the drinking season, without 
any knowledge of the composition of the 
waters, and little or none of their effects, who 
contrive to dispose of their directions to the 
ignorant and unwary, with no other effect 
than to injure the reputation of the water and 
destroy the prospects of the diseased." 

The public have long since decided, and 
decided correctly, that, in a vast majority of 
diseases, these waters should be taken with a 
primary regard to their cathartic properties* 



32 THE INVALID 

Although they unavoidably produce at the 
same time, diuretic, deobstruent, and even 
tonic effects, yet it is their impression on the 
bowels which seems to make the most palpa- 
ble inroad on existing disease, and, at the 
same time, excites the attention and confi- 
dence of the individual. 

I know, full well, the risk i incur, owing to 
the peculiarities of individual constitutions, in 
propounding a list of those diseases which I 
deem most fitted to the cathartic operation of 
the waters. Yet the reader is entitled to my 
opinion, such as it is ; and I therefore insert 
the following, without much regard to noso- 
logical arrangement, as comprising most of 
the diseases likely to be benefited by an 
aperient course of the mineral waters. 

Dyspepsia in all its forms — constipation- — 
chronic diarrhoea- — hcemorrhoids — jaundice — 
biliary calculi — palsy, without inflammation 
of the brain — hysteria — hypochondriasis — 
neuralgia, or nerve-ache, whether seat- 
ed in the face, stomach, liver, bowels, ute- 
rus, or extremities — chronic catarrh — hu- 
mid asthma — nervous palpitations — enlarge- 
ment of the liver and spleen — incontinence of 



AT SARATOGA. 33 

urine — gravel — leucorrhoea — irritable uterus 
— cutaneous eruptions — rheumatism — rheu- 
matic enlargement, and stiffness of the joints 
— diabetes — prostrate and stationary condi- 
tion after acute diseases — dropsies — vertigo — 
periodical headache — spinal irritation— stric- 
ture of rectum. 

The next question is, what spring shall be 
selected % With very little knowledge of 
medicine, any one can perceive that two per- 
sons, who are laboring under the same chro- 
nic disease, owing to their individual pecu- 
liarities of constitution, recover in the use of 
very dissimilar remedies. Physicians have 
given the hard name of idiosyncrasy or 
diathesis, to this peculiarity of constitution ; 
and it is, that the proper waters and baths 
should be adapted to the diathesis of each in- 
dividual, that brings so many to consult the 
physicians of this place. 

By referring to the third chapter, it will be 
perceived that there is a great difference in 
the stimulating and bracing qualities of the 
various fountains ; one or tw T o of them con- 
taining little iron, w T hile the Putnam spring 
contains seven grains to the gallon. Although 



34 THE INVALID 

I have already said that chemical analysis 
can never be tantamount to a scrutinizing 
and guarded observation of medicinal effects; 
I can yet truly say that, from five years' ex- 
perience, I have found a most striking coin- 
cidence between these two modes of discrimi- 
nation. 

If the invalid is liable to fever, heat, or 
dryness of skin — of a full habit— if he bears 
abstinence well — if bleeding, calomel and 
salts are beneficial — if tonic and stimulating- 
medicines and heating diet injure him- — and, 
above all, if his physician has frequently told 
him that his pulse is generally hard and in- 
compressible — he may safely conclude his 
diathesis to be inflammatory, and should re- 
sort to Congress or Iodine Spring for his 
morning potation. On the contrary, if he 
has a cool, pale skin — is little irritated by 
medicines — bears bleeding and other modes 
of reducing, badly — takes tonics well — does 
well on a generous meat-diet — and has a soft, 
slow pulse; — he may pay his addresses at 
once to the Pavilion or Putnam fountain, or 
the other chalybeate springs, drinking in the 
morning and throughout the day. 



AT SARATOGA 35 

Should the waters, in either case, prove 
too stimulating, the patient will discover it 
by gradual loss of appetite, sense of fulness, 
general oppression, feverishness, and some- 
times, cholera morbus. In this predicament, 
the invalid often loses the whole expense and 
trouble of his journey by fleeing homeward 
in a panic; when a couple of days 5 abstinence 
from the water and from food, saline medi- 
cines and antimonials, and, in some rare in- 
stances, bleeding, will almost invariably re- 
move the " Water Storm" and allow the 
patient to finish a proper treatment at the 
Springs. 

The proper time to take these waters, as a 
cathartic, is in the morning and in the morn- 
ing only. The reasons appear to me to be 
obvious. There has elapsed a period of six- 
teen hours since the principal meal of the 
preceding day, and eleven hours from the re- 
past of the evening. In people of weak or 
irritable stomachs, this is the only time in 
the twenty-four hours in which the digestive 
organs are not engaged in the solution and 
absorption of aliment. This, then, is the pre- 
cise period to interpose a mild, exhilarat- 



36 THE INVALID 

ing, and efficient cathartic ; and this should 
be taken so early and in such quantities, as 
thoroughly to evacuate all the remains of the 
preceding day's digestion, and to make so 
much impression on the mucous membranes 
of the alimentary canal as to rectify the pro- 
cess of secretion itself. 

This is the true Abernethean road to health 
to multitudes of bilious and dyspeptic inva- 
lids ; and will stand the most approved me- 
thod of medication, notwithstanding the nu- 
merous and laudable efforts that are made by 
the fraternity to discover a better way. 

From one to three pints is the proper 
quantity. In some rare cases of females, 
however, the stomach has not the capacity to 
contain even one pint before breakfast. There 
are many men, on the contrary, who take 
eight and even ten half pints in the morning 
with ease and comfort. Whatever be the 
quantity that is ultimately found necessary by 
each person, it should be taken in three por- 
tions and with short intervals between, occu- 
pying thirty or forty minutes in all. Brisk 
exercise by walking or otherwise is desirable 
during this time and for a short period after- 



AT SARATOGA. 37 

wards. And it is proper that at least an hour, 
and better an hour and a half, should elapse 
between the last potation and breakfast. 

I knew an intelligent gentleman in the 
spring of 1839, when the mornings were quite 
cold, dress at four, walk nearly half a mile to 
the spring, finish drinking, and return to his 
bed, where he became thoroughly warm in 
season to allow him a walk after the sun was 
up and before breakfast. 

By patients of feeble stomach and low tem- 
perature, the contents of a well corked bottle 
which has stood in the lodging room over 
night, can be taken during the process of 
dressing, after which the walk to the spring 
will prepare them for the remaining portion,, 
Or, the requisite quantity can be brought from 
the spring in the morning, and the bottles im- 
mersed in a kettle of warm water a few min- 
utes previous to drinking. Although a con- 
siderable quantity of the carbonic acid es- 
capes, the water tastes much better than one 
I would expect who has not tried it. 

Yet the invalid should never be deterred 
by indolence, irresolution or imaginary fears 
from going to the spring ; as it is incompara- 
.4 



38 THE INVALID 

bly better to take the beverage from the foun- 
tain in the midst of the absorbing and even 
picturesque scenes of the "dipping room/ 5 
and to take it fresh, too, from the bosom of 
the earth. The apprehension that valuable 
elementary principles may possibly escape 
from the bottle, and that there are ingredients 
in mineral waters that the present chemical 
processes have never appreciated, will appear 
less absurd the more it is reflected upon. 

Intelligent individuals have recovered here 
in three or four weeks while drinking at the 
springs, who during the preceding months 
have been able just to hold their disease at 
bay by a free use of the Congress water in 
bottles at home. I have a number of such 
cases on record, and would introduce them did 
my prescribed limits permit. Now is it sup- 
posable that the air and amusements of Sara- 
toga could make this striking difference ? Or 
is there an energy and a health-giving power 
in the medicine in the exact constitution and 
locality which nature assigns it, that are not 
to be found when it has been some time sepa- 
rated from the place of its original formation ? 

In concluding the subject of the cathartic 



AT SARATOGA. 39 

effects of these waters it should be added, that 
in case six or eight tumblers in the morning 
prove inadequate to produce the desired ob- 
ject, instead of adding to the quantity during 
the day, the attempt should be wholly relin- 
quished till the following morning. It will 
not then be expedient to increase the quantity 
of water, but to aid its operation by some 
thorough, cathartic medicine. If the patient 
be of full habit, blue pills taken several eve- 
nings on going to bed, may be suitable ; or 
active doses of calomel, two or three times at 
the same hour. A table-spoonful of Epsom 
salts, or a dose of calcined magnesia, may be 
taken at bedtime or with the first tumbler in 
the morning. 

In feeble habits, some of the compound, 
gum-resinous pills, or a few grains of rhubarb, 
may be preferable. Whatever article is se- 
lected as an auxiliary remedy, enough should 
be taken to ensure thorough operations, after 
which in general the water alone will be pre- 
ferable. 



40 THE INVALID 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE USE OF SARATOGA WATERS AS AN ALTERATIVE. 

By alterative medicines are meant all reme- 
dial agents that restore health to the'system 
in a gradual, imperceptible manner, without 
any marked sensations or uncommon evacua- 
tions during their operation. 

So great a majority of the complaints that 
appear at these springs require a free and co- 
pious use of the water in the morning, that 
the possibility of their being so taken as to 
prove directly alterative and tonic, without 
their ordinary cathartic effects, may be wholly 
unknown to many of the visitants. 

That these waters could be taken from one 
to two tumblers before each meal and at the 
hour of rest— not as a purgative — but ex- 
pressly to be retained as long as possible in 
the circulating mass, and in this way gradu- 
ally to produce a new condition of the solids 
and fluids, improving the strength, appetite 
and color, regulating the secretions of the 
stomach, bowels, liver, kidneys, &c, and 
proving rapidly tonic and deobstruent — did 



AT SARATOGA. M 

not occur to myself till I found one of the 
most intelligent and popular physicians in 
New York city taking the Congress in this 
manner in the early part of the season of ? 38« 

This gentleman had been repeatedly to the 
Virginia springs: and, after much reflection, 
had concluded that the best manner in which 
he could take the water during the few days 
his pressing engagements at home allowed 
him to spend in Saratoga, would be in that 
above described. 

To the long continued invalid who has 
painfully learned the difficulty of escaping 
from under the hands of disease, this mode of 
medication will seem at first view as consis- 
tent and rational. He has abandoned all hope 
of being cured by a few powerful doses of any 
medicine. His thoughts are upon a gradual 
removal of diseased processes and restoration 
of healthy ones ; and, if he is true to his own 
interests, he has come to a settled conviction, 
that time is a necessary ingredient in his re- 
covery, and to an equally settled determina- 
tion, that, if a few weeks of hopeful amend- 
ment do not establishhis health, he will spend 
months or years in its attainment. 
4* 



42 THE INVALID 

Within three days of writing these para* 
graphs, I have received a communication from 
a gentleman in on£ of our cities, who for ten or 
fifteen years has had so much disease of the di- 
gestive and biliary apparatus as to compel him 
to abandon all the pleasures of eating, and to 
live wholly on unbolted wheat bread and vege- 
tables, not even allowing himself butter. But 
when we consider his infirmities, his fluctua- 
tions of strength and spirits, his constant lia- 
bility to be thwarted in any proposed plan of 
usefulness Or profit, his embarrassments from 
change of diet while journeying, and his great 
deprivation of what others deem essential 
comforts, I ask what is life to him % 

I ask, too, whither he would not migrate, 
what employment he would not pursue, what 
vocation not follow, what voyages and cli- 
mates not encounter, — could he enjoy those 
physical sensations, those buoyant feelings, 
that freedom from pain, irritation and lassitude, 
which are found in the comprehension of that 
delightful little word — Health % 

Shall I be credited when I say that this 
gentleman is of easy fortune, of small family, 
under no necessity to labor, has been to these 



AT SARATOGA. 43 

fountains repeatedly and always with marked 
benefit : nay, that he admits to me his full 
belief that a continuance here of one or two 
years would result in the entire establishment 
of his health : — I repeat, shall I be credited 
when I say that he is yet hesitating whether 
to transfer his family to this village as many 
others have done and are now doing ? 

Here is an enigma which I confess myself 
unable to solve. I know T somewhat of the 
comforts of home, of neighborhood, of conge- 
nial institutions. I have the happiness to 
know, too, from many years' trial, the social 
and intellectual attractions, the religious or- 
der, and the unpretending, but real and solid 
friendship of the inhabitants of one of our New 
England cities : yet what are all these to 
health ? Besides, the men whose diseases 
have led them to cast anchor by the side of 
these fountains, have not expatriated them- 
selves. We have churches, schools, delight- 
ful walks which are comfortably dry from 
early spring, a dry and bracing atmosphere, 
village papers, mails, railroad conveyances, 
and abundance of the conveniences and com- 
forts of life. 



44 THE INVALID 

Even in winter, this is a lively, bustling 
village. Instead of the dullness, insipidity 
and intellectual stagnation which are uni- 
formly supposed to exist here in the winter, 
there are life, intercourse, friendship, business, 
action, literature and social circles : and al- 
though the thermometer marks a very low 
temperature, yet such is the bracing and buoy- 
ant quality of the air that nobody seems to 
regard it. The Bostonian or New-Yorker, 
who quails under the riddling and penetra- 
ting Northeaster when the thermometer is at 
freezing point, would experience not a whit 
more suffering here with the wind in the same 
quarter and the thermometer at zero. 

Citizens, here, in ordinary health, instead 
of dreading, enjoy the long season of sleigh- 
ing as well as the early settling of the ground 
and dry walking, which the continued cover- 
ing of snow secures in the spring. 

But I must not prolong this sketch of Sara- 
toga, imperfect as it is. I must not dwell at 
all on the brilliant and fascinating scenes of 
Saratoga in the summer. Only one thing I 
must beg pardon for saying. The single cir- 
cumstance which I consider more than any 



AT SARATOGA. 45 

other fascinates the inhabitants and fixes them 
here, is the multiplex yet select nature of the 
thousands of the visitants resorting to the 
place. 

But to return to the consideration Qf a per- 
severing use of the Saratoga waters, and par- 
ticularly as an alterative. This manner of 
using them consists in taking them in the 
quantity, ordinarily, of one tumbler and a 
half, half an hour before, or just after each 
meal, and at the hour of rest. Two tumblers 
are not too much for an adult, provided they 
do not prove decidedly cathartic. The object 
is that the whole amount of saline matter 
amounting to nearly 40 grains to each tum- 
bler should remain in the circulating fluids as 
long as possible. This method might be use- 
ful to very many : but the cases in which it 
has proved, under my prescription during the 
five seasons past, most happy, are those where 
the disease is of long standing and where the 
system requires a tonic and invigorating 
course. 

From the reports of others, it appears high- 
ly probable that this same method of taking 
what are called the iron or chalybeate foun- 



46 THE INVALID 

tains, namely the Hamilton, High Rock, Flat 
Rock, &c, has operated very much in the way 
above pointed out. But I have confined my 
patients, hitherto, to the waters of the Con- 
gress, Iodine, Pavilion, and Putnam's 
springs ; and it is only because the effects have 
been so decidedly favorable in using these, 
that I am proposing their continued employ- 
ment. It is impossible that I should describe 
minutely all the shades of disease in which 
this course is likely to prove beneficial: 
but I subjoin a list of those diseases which, 
in my opinion, require an alterative course, 
and shall conclude this chapter with a brief 
narrative of two or three cases to illustrate 
this mode of treatment. 

Scrofula — scrofulous tumors — scrofulous ul- 
cers — rickets — goitre — many cases of neural- 
gia—chlorosis- — amenorrhcEa — enlarged ton- 
sils — long continued indigestion — tabes me- 
senterica — sterility — secondary syphilis — 
abuseof mercurial medicines— -obstinate in- 
termittents— 'ministers' throat-ail, improperly 
called bronchitis — black jaundice — anoemia or 
general paleness andbloodlessness — neuralgic 
heat of stomach — general exfoliation from 
the bones with ulceration. 



AT SARATOGA. 47 



CASE I. 



J. R., an interesting boy of about eleven 
years of age, from one of the western cities 
of this State., was left here in June ? 39, with 
enlarged tonsils. This disease is now so 
prevalent that many know its symptoms, and 
all know that the operation of cutting off the 
glands is quite common. But the excision 
of these enlarged glands by a surgical opera- 
tion removes only one of the annoying ef- 
fects of a general disorder. The process had 
been tried in his case ; yet when he came 
under my care his tonsils were very large, 
there was great irritation about the throat, as 
evinced by constant and distressing hawking ; 
he had a pale doughy face and poor appetite, 
with general languor and debility. 

A tumbler and a half of the Congress wa- 
ter, taken from the spring, was prescribed 
three or four times a day, and the cold, 
mineral shower bath every second day. It 
was not one week before his appetite was 
greatly improved, and thenceforward he ate 
very freely and relished and digested every- 
thing. He attended Mr. Bangs's academy 



48 THE INVALID 

steadily. After staying between two and 
three months, he returned to his parents in 
the following condition. He has scarcely 
any trouble from thick, viscid phlegm in his 
throat. He sleeps well, the glands are nearly 
natural, a healthy color has supplanted the 
dark dingy hue of his cheek, he has great 
vivacity, his movements are vigorous, his 
limbs plump ; in short, he has entire health. 
During the last half of the course he left the 
Congress and took the Iodine spring. I could 
perceive no difference in the rapidity of his 
convalescence. The cure of this deep-seated 
disease demonstrates the power of these wa- 
ters when taken as an alterative or tonic. 

CASE II. 

SCROFULA, WITH STRONG TENDENCY TO PULMONARY 
CONSUMPTION. 

July 19, 1839, J. W., a single lady from 
C. ; pulse 66 and soft ; skin cool and moist ; 
countenance bilious. Has lost six brothers 
and sisters by consumption. Tumors nearly 
as large as marbles beneath the skin. Chest 
narrow. Breath scanty. Habit always spare. 



AT SARATOGA, 49 

Generally feeble. Appetite absolutely gone. 
Sour stomach; eructations ; frequent head 
ache. She remained till Sept. 11th. She 
took two tumblers of the Congress three 
times daily, half an hour before her meals. 
This quantity proved agreeably laxative, 
though not cathartic. The last half of the 
time she chose the Iodine spring, on account 
of the taste, and she discovered no difference 
in the medicinal effects. She went to the 
spring for every potation, rain or shine. She 
also took a hot bath every second day, at a 
temperature from 105° to 110°. 

She leaves us with strong, uniform appe- 
tite, eating substantial food without trouble, 
her strength much increased, her countenance 
clear and bright, and with every proof of 
renovated health. 

P. S. May 1, 1843.— Her health has re- 
mained good to this day. 



50 THE INVALID 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE EXTERNAL USE OF THE WATERS. UATHS. 

Cold Bath from32 Q to 65°. 

Tepid Bath from 65 Q to 85°. 

Warm Bath from 85° to 97 Q . 

Hot Bath upwards of 97°. 
A bath at about 95° Fahrenheit, whether of 
mineral or simple water, is a pleasant thing. 
It is cleanly, refreshing and soothing ; and, like 
a pleasant ride, or the society of a long absent 
friend, is auxiliary to health. But it is not 
strictly a medicinal agent at this temperature. 
Chronic maladies are cured by "instituting 
states or conditions incompatible with morbid 
action." But this bath makes no appreciable 
inroad on morbid action. The patient is con- 
scious of no shock, no impression, no inconve- 
nience, no^ perceptible change. It is a capi- 
tal indulgence, and every way desirable in 
point of health and comfort ; though, at this 
temperature, not a powerful remedy. 

But the invalid who has been forced from 
his home and obliged to undergo the incon- 
veniences of this thronged place, does not 



AT SARATOGA. 5f 

come hither to be amused with remedies. He 
wants every prescribed agent to tell on his 
disease. He knows that all necessary pre- 
scriptions from physicians, and all necessary 
medicines, are a matter of economy to one 
who has already sacrificed so much in coming. 
But it is nonsense to be wasting his time with 
ambiguous remedies. 

What then are the principles which should 
guide the invalid or his physician in the em- 
ployment of baths'? Will it be deemed a 
gratuitous or unfounded acknowledgment to 
say that the application of baths to the re- 
moval of diseases, is, among the faculty in 
general, one of the most vague and unsettled 
subjects ? There are fixed notions about the 
use of the lancet, emetics, cathartics, blisters, 
anodynes and tonics. But select a given pa- 
tient and summon a dozen physicians in con- 
sultation anywhere, and let them decide. 
And if there is a majority in favor of the bath, 
let each assign the exact temperature, the 
length of time and frequency of repetition, 
and see if the above position is not confirmed. 

Perhaps this discrepancy of opinion is only 
imaginary on the part of the writer. If so r 



52 THE INVALID 

he begs the pardon of his brethren. Yet it is 
his honest and full belief, that if they would 
express their exact sentiments on this point, 
they would universally concur with him. 
This vagueness of the principles of baths is by 
no means confined to the profession. Every 
man has a creed. The invalid has one, — -the 
keeper of the boarding-house has one, — and 
the owners and attendants of the baths have 
theirs. 

Let a physician here furnish an invalid with 
directions to take a bath of such high or low 
temperature and of such duration that it shall 
give a decisive blow to the disease, and the 
directions will, very possibly, meet with a 
dozen comments and condemnations before 
they reach the bath house. At that place 
great firmness and decision may be needed on 
the part of the patient, as well as unshaken 
confidence in the prudence and discrimination 
of his medical adviser; else these well meaning 
and otherwise judicious attendants may over- 
rule and modify the whole procedure. It may 
be necessary, too, for the patient or his friends 
to see with their own eyes that the thermome- 
ter stands at the point prescribed. Did not 



AT SARATOGA. 53 

some professional experience lead to these 
intimations they would not meet the eye of 
the invalid. 

My limits forbid the attempt to describe 
fully the popular notions about baths. One 
sentiment is almost universal, viz., that if a 
patient, whether feeble or stout — spare or 
plethoric- — feels a glow T after the cold or 
shower bath, it is the proper remedy. The 
mechanical effect of cold in contracting the 
muscular fibres and the sensation of warmth — *■ 
although the animal heat is a long time actu- 
ally lower than before the shock— are proof 
enough that the whole effect is not only in- 
vigorating but subversive of disease. 

There is a similar agreement about the hot- 
bath. If the person feels faint and feeble 
thirty or sixty minutes after leaving it and 
while in it, the measure is condemned — al- 
though for hours the skin and cellular sub- 
stance may contain two or three pounds of 
extra blood, to the great relief of the internal 
organs — profuse and general perspiration con- 
tinue equally long— the lips and countenance 

change from a pale to a florid aspect, the 

5* 



54 THE INVALID 

joints become flexible, and all the sensations, 
after a few hours, become decidedly improved. 

At these fountains, where the application 
of a stimulating, saline and gaseous liquid to 
the whole external surface is often performed 
on from fifty to one hundred individuals daily, 
the responsibility of prescribing baths be- 
comes a matter of serious import, and de- 
mands the anxious consideration of every 
practitioner here. 

Very early in the season of '38, P. C. 5 Esq., 
from Massachusetts, had been under my care 
about two w r eeks for rheumatism of long 
standing, and had been rapidly improving 
under the combined influence of Congress 
water and active depletion. At that time he 
took with my consent a bath at 100 Q . The 
effect was most unhappy. All the original 
stiffness and pain of joints, feverishness, hard 
pulse and feeling of stricture around the abdo- 
men returned, and it required several days of 
the previous course to restore him to the same 
condition as before the bath. 

This painful and mortifying incident led me 
to an earnest investigation of the principles of 
baths, and of all the authors within my reach. 



AT SARATOGA. 55 

In a treatise on Baths and Mineral Waters, by 
Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, I found a criterion 
which I looked for in vain in Currie, Jackson, 
Scudamore, and other distinguished writers on 
this subject — a criterion which has, in very- 
few instances, to my knowledge, during five 
seasons, led me astray in its application to the 
diversified phases of disease— and one which I 
can most honestly, perhaps too credulously, 
recommend to the adoption of my fellow prac- 
titioners here and throughout the country, as 
a safe and intelligible guide. 

The principle is simply this :—that in all 
febrile and inflammatory diseases, whether 
acute or chronic, in short, in all diseases — 
wherever the lancet is called for, there also 
will the cold, tepid, or shower bath be suitable ; 
and where the lancet would be injurious, there 
should the hot bath be used. The simplicity 
of this rule will probably startle some. It 
may be inquired, " would you not take into 
the account such circumstances as plethoric 
habit, florid face, red tongue, the previous 
effect of warm and cold applications and of 
tonic or debilitating remedies V Certainly. 
But I say most decidedly and from many 



56 THE INVALID 

trials, that by throwing one's whole responsi- 
bility upon the exact condition of the pulse, 
and making this paramount to all other 
diagnostic symptoms, though not rejecting 
them as auxiliary guides, a physician will 
most effectually and infallibly bestow upon 
baths their powerful and just instrumentality 
in the removal of disease. 

Let us apply this principle to some well 
known diseases, for example, rheumatism. It 
is well understood at watering places, that 
baths of the same temperature sometimes in- 
jure and sometimes benefit this class of pa- 
tients. The cold bath has, in many instances, 
rapidly removed powerful attacks of rheuma- 
tism. 

Some winters ago, Mr. A. H. A., of this 
village, had been a considerable time under 
the attendance of Dr. Steel, for a severe at- 
tack of acute rheumatism. At length, at the 
urgent solicitation of the patient, he was taken 
from his bed by several men, placed in a large 
tub, and two pailfuls of cold, mineral water, 
poured on him through a sieve. He was then 
rubbed dry and placed in bed between two 
warm blankets. This process was subse- 



AT SARATOGA. 67 

quently repeated ; and in one or two weeks 
the patient was below stairs and walking the 
streets. He speedily recovered perfectly. 
Dr. Clark, the owner of the Congress spring, 
knew the circumstances, and told me he 
could refer me to a number of similar cases in 
this vicinity. 

A member of Clark's Expedition beyond 
the Rocky Mountains, was cured of an obsti- 
nate rheumatism, while remote from profes- 
sional aid, by twenty-five immersions in as 
many days, in the river, through a hole cut in 
the ice. Each immersion was accompanied 
with shampooing by the Indian Doctor while 
in the water, and followed by frictions before 
a warm fire. 

A Mr. E. W. of Rome, N.Y., having lost 
all hope of recovery, crawled to a river whose 
borders were covered with ice, and lay in the 
water as a bath. The disorder received such 
an impression that he was speedily restored to 
health. Mr. N. of New York city, was acci- 
dentally thrown into the sea, in winter, near 
Stratford Point, and cured of rheumatism. 

I must not be more particular. Every man 
of extensive practice could easily add to the 



58 THE INVALID 

above list. My own case-book would afford 
a number of instances in which baths at 65 Q 
to 80° were strikingly useful. 

The hot bath, on the contrary, everybody 
knows to have been wonderfully useful in 
particular instances of this same complaint — 
rheumatism. 

I had a patient in August, ? 39, Gen. J. A. N. 
of New York State, of florid countenance, 
short neck, full habit, weight 186 lbs. — fat 
and muscular — yet whose pulse was only 76, 
soft and perfectly compressible. Here, thought 
I, as he hobbled into my office, and stated his 
disease, is the man whom a hot bath would 
utterly upset or destroy. Yet, on a thorough 
examination, relying more on his soft pulse 
than all other symptoms, I ordered him, in 
addition to the internal use of the water, to 
take baths of mineral water fifteen minutes 
daily of 106°. To say his recovery was rapid, 
does not convey the meaning. He was well 
in two weeks, not a vestige of the rheuma- 
tism remaining. 

The illustration of this principle in the 
treatment of rheumatism, must suffice for all 
diseases. Disorders of the same name require, 



AT SARATOGA. 59 

in different instances, the adoption of differ- 
ent remedies. As far as baths are concerned, 
a most scrupulous investigation of the pulse — - 
carefully distinguishing when it is hard and 
wiry and when soft and compressible — will 
form a safe guide in all ordinary cases. It 
should not be forgotten, however, that the 
daily use of hot baths may prove so stimulat- 
ing as to be inadmissible when the patient 
recovers a certain degree of tone ; nor that 
the cold bath may be so sedative as to require 
to be discontinued. 

I close this discussion by transcribing an 
entry in my journal towards the close of the 
season of 1839. " I have been prescribing 
mineral baths, many, daily, for weeks. If the 
pulse is hard—demanding calomel, Epsom 
salts, antimonials, or bleeding — whatever be 
the color or heat of the skin or the muscular 
strength — I prescribed a bath from 65 Q to 85 Q , 
or cold shower, and have thus far had no rea- 
son for regret or mortification. 

" On the contrary, if the pulse is soft and 
slow, I have without hesitation prescribed the 
hot bath from 100 p to 110°, without any un- 
toward result, although great languor may 



60 THE INVALID 

have been experienced while in the baths. If 
the patient had cool, perspirable skin/ pale 
face, pale lips and tongue, the hot bath prov- 
ed still more clearly beneficial." 

Whatever may be the result of future ob- 
servations, I can truly say, that, thus far, 
since adopting this simple criterion, the order- 
ing of baths has ceased to be a matter of 
painful uncertainty and doubt; and, more- 
over, that I have experienced extreme grati- 
fication in finding that when an accurate dis- 
crimination is made, and the remedy is boldly 
applied from a low temperature up to 110 Q , 
according to the nature of each case, it has 
become a much more efficient auxiliary, and 
in many cases, the leading measure in pro- 
ducing rapid convalescence. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS ON SARATOGA AS A RESORT 
FOR INVALIDS. 

The first topic to which the attention of 
the reader is called in considering the pecu- 
liarities of Saratoga as a watering place, is 



AT SARAT OGA. 61 

the condition of the atmosphere of this place. 
It would be idle to attempt to prove to my 
readers that a " change of air" simply, is of- 
ten and unequivocally a curative remedy. 
The profession, generally, are now united in 
the acknowledged benefits resulting from 
change of atmosphere. The plains of Sara- 
toga are remarkable for an arid surface and 
a dry air. The soil here, being alluvial and 
sandy, the atmosphere contains a very small 
share of moisture •; so small, indeed, that I 
have never discovered any appearance of 
mould on my books or shoes ; and in the 
higher parts of the village it has not occurred 
for many years. 

. Add to the dry and bracing nature of this 
atmosphere, the highly balsamic or rather 
turpentine qualities with which it is impreg- 
nated, by the numerous pines and other forest 
trees that have been wisely allowed to re- 
main in and around this beautiful village, 
and you will perceive at once that these con- 
siderations are by no means to be overlooked 
by invalids who are projecting the means of 
gaining health abroad. They especially con- 
cern those who reside on our sea-board, on 



62 THE INVALID 

the banks of rivers, and in low, clayey soils. 
Independently of the other powerful attrac- 
tions for invalids at Saratoga, the pure and 
balsamic atmosphere should, of itself, induce 
many to make trial of the location. 

Another topic to which I wish to call the 
attention of the reader is, the agreeable and 
delicious qualities of the waters of Saratoga. 
I have studied minutely various authors on 
the mineral waters of Europe and America, 
since my residence here ; but I truly do not 
find in nature so admirable a combination 
for chronic diseases as is to be found in the 
various springs scattered along this valley. 
I need not tell my readers that a course of 
well selected laxatives is, of itself, sufficient 
to remove a multitude of chronic complaints. 
This is universally understood. What, then, 
should we not expect from daily, periodical 
evacuations by a medicine, delicious, cool, 
exhilarating, full of agreeable, enlivening 
qualities, and containing salts, antacids, lime, 
iron and even iodine 1 These remarks apply 
only to the saline springs, or those which 
contain the least proportion of iron, and 
without alluding to the various methods of 



AT SARATOGA. 63 

internal and external administration of all 
these waters. 

Were these medicines of nature as disa- 
greeable to the* taste as the productions of 
the apothecary, they never could have gain- 
ed such celebrity. It is the happy combina- 
tion of acidulous and saline properties in 
these cooling beverages, that adapts them to 
the taste of the sickly invalid. It is this 
which causes many thousands, who" are con- 
fined by disease at home, to long for a place 
by the side of these gushing fountains, that 
they may slake their urgent thirst. It is this, 
combined with the vivid remembrance of re- 
turning health, which brings multitudes here 
from season to season. 

The very agreeable qualities and the effi- 
cacy of these waters have placed them en- 
tirely above all competition, short of the con- 
tinent of Europe, and established them on so 
immovable a basis as to relieve the inhabit- 
ants of the place from all trouble and ex- 
pense in procuring public notices and com- 
mendations of the Springs abroad. From 
my own professional business and correspon- 
dence, I could easily fill a volume with testi- 



64 THE INVALID 

monials in their favor. The two following 
documents from the editorial columns of dif- 
ferent newspapers, I beg leave to introduce 
in this place, as specimens of what is often 
thrown into the Journals by disinterested . 
persons. 

" Steam Boat Erie, North River, Aug. 26, 1839. 

" Mr. Editor — I am now on my return 
from Saratoga Springs, where I have spent 
three weeks greatly to the benefit of my 
health. When I arrived there it was with 
some difficulty that I walked from the car 
house to the Temperance House. I can now 
walk tw r o or three miles without much fa- 
tigue. The effect of the mineral waters on 
my system has been most salutary. The 
same is true of many of my old acquaintan- 
ces. Many seem to think that these waters 
are the ' Matchless Sanative' for almost 
every disease that affects the human race. 
Their medicinal properties are indeed won- 
derful, and many of the cures which they ef- 
fect border nearly on the miraculous. If 
their regenerating effect on the inner man 
were as great as it generally is on the outer 



AT SARATOGA. 65 

man, the pleasant village of Saratoga might 
indeed be a garden of Paradise. 

" R. G. W." 

From an Albany paper of July 12th, 1839. 
SARATOGA SPRINGS. 

" We made our annual flying visit to Sara- 
toga on Saturday, and returned to wonder, 
as usual, why all who have leisure and 
means, do not pass their summers at these 
delightful Springs. There is no other place 
where so much of what we ardently desire — 
health and happiness— is to be found. An 
hour passed at the Congress Spring, refresh- 
ing and invigorating the system, and impart- 
ing cheerfulness and buoyancy to the spirits, 
is a luxury of inestimable value. Indeed 
there is nothing like it in reality or imagina- 
tion." 

But on this subject I must not enlarge. 
"Selfishness," "village interest," "private 
emolument"— may have already flitted 
through the mind of the reader. Well, let 
that pass. Whatever motives may have con- 
tributed to this publication and the present 
6 # 



66 THE INVALID 

remarks, the invalid has only to consult his 
own interest in weighing the above and 
many other similar testimonies that might be 
adduced : the writer only claiming that com- 
mon humanity and sympathy for his fellow 
sufferers through which every one, who has 
been rescued from disease himself or has had 
his friends so rescued, is prone to recommend 
the remedy to his acquaintances. This li- 
cense, I claim, witnessing what I have on 
this post of observation; and feel that I 
should be recreant to the professional respon- 
sibility I owe my fellow men, did I not con- 
tribute my humble effort to diffuse widely 
the information of the healing influences of 
these waters. 

3. Another topic which should not pass 
unnoticed, is a proper attention to diet and 
regimen. There is not a doubt in my mind 
that at this watering place, there is both 
among physicians and patients too great 
laxity and indulgence in respect to the plea- 
sures of the table. If there was but one 
large boarding establishment here, owned by 
one or a few individuals, as is the case at 
some Springs in Virginia and other places, a 



AT SARATOGA. 67 

more rigid system of diet could be enforced. 
Let us hear the disinterested remark of Dr. 
Hunt, a distinguished physician from Wash- 
ington, who erroneously supposed himself 
cured of pulmonary consumption, at the Red 
Sulphur Spring in Virginia in the summer of 
1837. " The visitors who were most bene- 
fited by the water, remained here five or 
six weeks ; confined themselves to a diet of 
rye mush and milk ; and were industrious in 
rising early, drinking the water and taking 
exercise. Others who indulged themselves 
in eating, sleeping late in the morning, and 
lounging about during the day, derived but 
little advantage from the use of the water, 
and generally returned home dissatisfied." 
This is the Spring so famous on account of 
its reducing the pulse in incipient consump- 
tion, and other inflammatory diseases. But 
if patients in general, nay one quarter or one 
sixth of the whole number, can be brought 
to observe the same rigid abstinence from 
stimulation and the same " extremely low 
diet" to use his own language, that he ob- 
served, cases enough of slow pulse would 
occur. The reason why his pulse, in that 



68 THE INVALID 

state of starvation and repose from a very- 
fatiguing and irritating journey, and from ar- 
dent professional engagements, should be re- 
duced from 115 strokes a minute to 78, is 
sufficiently obvious. Although Dr. Hunt 
took from six to twelve tumblers of Sulphur 
Spring water a day, it plainly proves noth- 
ing as to the sedative influence of the water, 
when conjoined with his abstemious regimen. 
It only proves the good effects of spare 
diet, repose, and laxatives of an excellent 
character: and I have little doubt that 
should the patients of the Red Sulphur be 
tempted by the tables of Saratoga, the re- 
ports of the sedative effects of that Spring 
would soon cease. 

The above strictures are in no sense de- 
rogatory to the Red Sulphur Springs as an 
establishment It is rather an acknowledg- 
ment of our own impotency in enforcing a 
sufficiently spare diet in inflammatory dis- 
eases. Saratoga is proverbially a hungry 
place. A powerful appetite is produced by 
the waters. It is the interest of the boarding 
houses to provide an inviting table. What, 
then, shall guard the craving stomach of the 



AT SARATOGA. 69 

valetudinarian from nullifying all the expect- 
ed benefits of his visit % The family phy- 
sician may do much before the patient leaves 
home. A watchful self-denial of the inva- 
lid himself, can do more. As he convales- 
ces, however, it is allowable that he should 
gradually, but cautiously, enlarge his diet so 
as to give full employment to the stomach as 
it regains its powers. 

Before finishing this subject, it ought to 
be said, that the above remarks apply only 
to inflammatory diseases, in which reducing 
measures in general are appropriate, and 
that there are many cases here every season 
in which a highly stimulating diet with con- 
diments is strictly necessary to recovery. 

4. The family physician should state fully 
and honestly to the patient the absolute ne- 
cessity of a thorough and extended trial of 
the waters* Experienced practitioners know 
very well that a complex medicine which 
can, by internal and external exhibition, be 
made to operate as an alterative, deobstruent, 
antacid, aperient, diuretic and tonic, should 
not be abandoned on a slight trial. They 
know, too, what their patients cannot appre- 



70 THE INVALID 

ciate, the indispensable necessity of some ex- 
tent of time in removing deep-seated and 
long continued maladies. How preposterous, 
then, for invalids who have been laboring 
under the influence of established disease for 
months or years, to hope they can eradicate 
and banish these diseased processes in one or 
two weeks ! 

The physicians here, and the keepers of 
boarding houses, know this full well : but 
how can they retain invalids whose own 
family physician has not urged to a faithful 
trial of the remedy ? 



AVON SPRING, 


NEW YORK. 


Analysis by Prof. 


H adley . 


One gallon contains — 
Sulphate of Lime, 
Sulphate of Magnesia, 
Sulphate of Soda, 
Carbonate of Lime, 
Muriate of Soda, 
A small residue, 


inc 


grs. 84. 
10. 
16. 

8. 

18.4 


Sulphuretted Hydrogen, 
Carbonic Acid, 


grs. 136.4 
ihes 12. 
5.6 



inches 17.6 



AT SARATOGA. 71 

SHARON SPRINGS, NEW YORK. 
Anal y sis by Dr. Chilton. 
One gallon contains — 
Sulphate of Magnesia, grs. 42.40 

Sulphate of Lime, 111.62 

Chloride of Sodium, 2.24- 

Chloride of Magnesium, 2.40 

Hydro-Sulphuret of Sodium, and ? o oq 
Hydro-Sulphuret of Calcium, $ 







grs. 


160.94 


Sulphuretted Hydrogen 


Gas, 


inches 
NG, VIR 


16. 


WHITE SULPHUR 


SPRI 


GIN1A. 


Ana lysis by W . 


B. 


Rogers 


^ Va. 


One gallon contains- 








Sulphuretted Hydrogen 


) 


inches 


2.5 


Carbonic Acid, 






2. 


Oxygen, 






1.448 


Nitrogen, 






3.552 



Gaseous contents, 9.5 
One pint contains of solid contents, 

Sulphate of Magnesia, 5.588 

Sulphate of Lime, 7.744 

Carbonate of Lime, 1.150 

Muriate of Lime, .204 

Chloride of Sodium, .180 
Oxide of Iron, a trace, 

Loss, .410 

grs. 15.276 



72 THE INVALID AT SARATOGA. 

RED SULPHUR SPRING, VIRGINIA. 

By A. A. Hayes, Roxbury , Mass, 

One gallon contains — 
Carbonic Acid, inches 5.750 

Nitrogen, 6.916 

Oxygen, 1.201 

Hydro-Sulphuric Acid, .397 

Gaseous contents, 14.264 

50.000 grs., nearly 7 pints, contains — 

Sulphur Compound, ' grs. 7.20 

Carbonate of Magnesia, 4.13 

Carbonate of Lime, 4.50 

Sulphate of Lime, .47 

Sulphate of Soda, 3.55 

Siliceous and earthy matter, .70 

grs. 20.55 



BEDFORD SPRING, PENNSYLVANIA. 

By Dr . Church, of Pittsbur gh. 



Sulphate of Magnesia, 
Sulphate of Lime, 
Muriate of Soda, 
Muriate of Lime, 
Carbonate of Lime, 
Carbonate of Iron, 
Loss, 


grs. 80. 
15. 
10. 

3. 

8. 

5. 

3. 


Solid contents, 
Carbonic Acid, 


grs. 124. 
inches 74. 






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